Review: The Legacy by Katherine Webb

• Paperback:496 pages
• Publisher:Harper Paperbacks; Original edition (August 30, 2011)
• ISBN-10: 0062077309
• Source: Publisher

Erica Calcott and her sister, Beth, used to spend summers at their grandmother’s manor in Wiltshire, England.  After her death, they have returned to Storton Manor; Beth is mentally unwell and has been for some time. Erica believes the return to a place of their childhood might lighten her spirits.  Unfortunately, Beth can’t get over the events that took place the summer that changed their lives, the summer their cousin Henry went missing.

Determined to stay at the manor, Erica begins to look through her grandmother’s possessions, unveiling a photograph and a set of letters that questions the accuracy of their family’s past.  Sifting through this history, Erica uncovers a family secret, and not one but two acts of unthinkable betrayal.

The Legacy vaccilates between present and past, to the early 1900s to Caroline, Beth & Erica’s great-grandmother. As far as Erica & Beth knew, Caroline married Henry Calcott, but she had an entire life before this union, a past left covered for decades. The reader becomes immersed in the hunt for the truth, to find out the truth behind the photograph Erica uncovers, and how this relates to the disappearance of their cousin decades before.

The characters within the The Legacy are rich with detail and great in number.  Webb successfully interweaves the past and the present, the reader never confused by the alternating storylines.  It’s not difficult to find parallels between the past and the present; actions taking place in the past reoccur in the present. The past, while it may have been kept secret, doesn’t fail to impact the future.

At nearly 500 pages, The Legacy is an absorbing read.  Be sure to set aside hours time to devote to this book; once you start I guarantee you won’t be able to put it down.  Highly recommended.